CLEVELAND _ The Indians rallied for a seven-run inning and erased deficits of 5-0 and 9-7, but it still wasn't enough, as they were outlasted by the Toronto Blue Jays, 13-11, in 11 innings on Thursday in the first game of a doubleheader at Progressive Field.
The Indians and Blue Jays traded punches all day, which included the 11th inning.
In the top half of the inning, Tyler Olson recorded two outs but couldn't finish it. A walk, a double and a walk loaded the bases for Yangervis Solarte, who belted a grand slam to make it 13-9.
The Indians still managed to bring the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the 11th. With two on, Edwin Encarnacion singled home two runs with one out against Roberto Osuna. Now representing the tying run, Yonder Alonso struck out and Jason Kipnis lined out to second base to end the four-hour, 47-minute slugfest.
The Blue Jays roughed up Indians starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco for five earned runs in the first four innings. The lineup responded with a seven-run fourth to take the lead but the bullpen could not finish innings.
Brandon Guyer started the rally with an RBI double and was followed by Bradley Zimmer's two-run single. After Erik Gonzalez struck out but reached base when the ball escaped catcher Russell Martin _ an indication that everything went the their way for an inning _ Francisco Lindor drilled a three-run home run to put the Indians on top 6-5.
A walk by Jose Ramirez and a single from Michael Brantley later, Edwin Encarnacion lined a ball off the left-field wall for his second hit of the inning to make it a seven-run inning. In that inning, Yan Gomes was the only hitter in the lineup to not reach base.
Carrasco allowed six runs on nine hits and three walks and struck out seven in 5 1/3 innings. With a runner on first in the sixth inning, Carrasco was relieved by Nick Goody, whose first pitch was a slider that he left down the middle to Josh Donaldson that was crushed for a game-tying two-run home run.
Goody had to exit the game in the seventh. On a pitch to Kevin Pillar, Goody quickly threw off his glove and grabbed for his arm and was taken out of the game with a right elbow injury.
The Blue Jays again took the lead against Zach McAllister, who entered the game after Goody's exit. With runners on the corners, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. singled to left to score Kevin Pillar from third. Rajai Davis nailed Aledmys Diaz trying to advance to third on the play to end the inning, but the damage was already done.
The Blue Jays added on to their lead in the eighth. McAllister struggled to put away the final out, and with two outs gave up a two-strike double to Teoscar Hernandez, a four-pitch walk to Solarte and a two-strike double to Kevin Pillar to make it 9-7 before being taken out in favor of Ben Taylor.
The Indians answered in the bottom of the eighth to tie it back up. Lindor crushed a solo home run an estimated 445 feet for his second homer of the day and seventh of the season, cutting the Blue Jays' lead to 9-8. After Ramirez walked, Brantley grounded a ball down the first-base line that was called an error on Solarte. It rattled around in the corner, allowing Ramirez to score to tie it at 9 before Brantley was tagged out straying too far off second base.
